104 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



INSECTS AND FLOWERS IN COLOEADO. 



To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly. 



UNDER the above heading, in the Jan- 

 uary number, Mr. Meehan calls for a 

 list of the Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera, 

 abundant enough to probably act as cross- 

 fertilizers of flowers iu the region observed 

 by him namely, from Denver to Golden 

 City and Idaho Springs, through the South 

 Park to Pike's Peak, thence returning to 

 Denver direct. 



In 1871 (the year of Mr. Meehan's ob- 

 servations) I spent the months of June, 

 July, August, and September, entirely in 

 the region mentioned, and devoted my time 

 almost exclusively to the collection and ob- 

 servation of Lepidoptera. In no place out- 

 side of the tropics have I found a better col- 

 lecting-ground, at least so far as diurnals 

 are concerned, both as to variety of species 

 and number of specimens. This abundance, 

 however, is chiefly noticeable early in the 

 season, as indicated by the number of speci- 

 mens I was able to secure in the different 

 months namely, 1,792 in June, 1,483 in 

 July, 607 in August, and only 43 in Sep- 

 tember. 



Of insects of other orders I collected 

 about 3,800 specimens ; but very few of 

 them were Hymenoptera, as I devoted only 

 rainy days to the collection of insects other 

 than butterflies. Several species of hum- 

 ble-bees were observed ; these did not seem 

 to confine their attention to any particular 

 kind of flower. 



At Idaho Springs, about the middle of 

 August, I saw hundreds of Noctuidte at- 

 tracted by the lights of the hotel, and cap- 

 tured some sixty specimens. A notewor- 

 thy fact is that in the Alpine regions many 

 NoctuidcB were diurnal in their habits. The 

 most abundant species was Heliothis Meadii 

 (Grote) ; these moths were found flying 

 from flower to flower, or resting upon flow- 

 ers both above and below the timber-line. 

 The white-lined sphinx {Deilephila lineata) 

 was also quite plentiful in some spots, and 

 seemed quite partial to larkspur and similar 

 showy flowers. 



Certain diurnals of arctic types positive- 

 ly swarmed on many of the peaks for ex- 

 ample, Argynnis Helena (Edwards), and 

 lower down several species of IlelKcea, Phy- 

 ciodes, and Argynnis., were constantly to be 

 found at flowers. 



I give a list of the more abundant but- 

 terflies, with the number of specimens of 

 each species or genus taken, classing those 

 occurring almost entirely at or above the 



timber-line as Alpine ; those found mostly 

 below 11,000 feet elevation as valley species 

 the species in the latter class which range 

 above the timber-line to any great extent 

 are designated by an asterisk (*). 



Necessarily most of the collecting was 

 done below the timber-line ; hence the Al- 

 pine species were more abundant in individ- 

 uals than the recorded number of specimens 

 collected would indicate. None of the spe- 

 cies are likely to have been introduced by 

 the agency of man. 



ALPINE SPECIKS. 



Colias Meadii 65 



Argynnis (5 species) 190 



ChionobaB (2 epecies) 25 



Erebia Tyndarus, variety Callias 62 



Hesperia near Centaure 16 



VALLEY SPECIES. 



Parnassius SmintheuB * 241 



Pieris (3 species) 106 



Anthocharis (2 specieB) 7ft 



Colias (5 species) 339 



Vanessa, Grapta, etc. (9 species) 138 



Argynnis (8 species) 210 



Euptoieta Claudia * (very abundant) 53 



Melitaea and Phyciodes (8 species) 297 



Satyridae * (7 species) 495 



Lycasnidse * (21 epecies) 835 



Hesperidse 219 



Geometridae and Noctuidae * 318 



Theodore L. Mead. 



CoENELL TJniveesitt, January 20, 1877. 



SINGING IN THE EAES. 

 To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly. 



Mr. Editor : Do the minute tones heard 

 in "singing" or "ringing in the ears" 

 have any musical relation to each other ? 



" Singing in the ears " is a mingling of 

 minute tones, somewhat like the singing of 

 a tea-kettle, caused by undue pressure of 

 the circulation in the head, etc. 



In my own case, the minute tones seem 

 to be octaves., and thirds, and fiftlis apart, 

 forming chords and progressive intervals. 



In investigating the relation of music to 

 the physiology of audition, I find this a 

 very important question, demanding a mul- 

 tiplicity of evidence. Will those of your 

 readers who have information on this mat- 

 ter (positive or negative, but exact) write to 

 me? X. Y, Clark, 



Box 2,260, 

 San Fkanoisoo, Califoenia. 



FEEDING-HABITS OF WOOD-ANTS. 



To the Editor of the Popular Science Monihly. 



In the March number of your journal, 

 page 634, is a notice of the " Singular Feed- 



